


Memory Is a Funny Thing

by Stasia



Category: Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Gen, Yuletide Madness 2010
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stasia/pseuds/Stasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes what we remember isn't real.  Sometimes what's real isn't what we remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory Is a Funny Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [genarti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/genarti/gifts).



> I have wanted to write something like this ever since I saw the movie in the theater in 1989. I have always wondered what the other people at teh wedding thought.

Her Grace, the Duchess Irene, cousin to His Royal Majesty King Eric, had many questions about things. She'd always been interested in science and other un-ladylike subjects, but her position protected her from most ridicule or difficulty. She had tanks filled with different sorts of fish and aquatic life and would spend hours in the ocean, either investigating tide pools or, when her attendants weren't watching, swimming in the sea, dipping underwater for as long as she could hold her breath. She found many new fish and some interesting forms of underwater plants.

No one ever asked why she was so interested in studying the ocean, and even if they had, she probably wouldn't tell them. She'd spent her whole life, or most of it, trying to find out what had happened when she was eight. She knew what she remembered, but no one else seemed to know what she was talking about.

***

"Look, Mama, the wedding ship! It's so pretty." Lady Irene, the eight year old daughter of Duke Laurence tugged at her mother's skirt.

"Yes, dear," Duchess Maria responded, her voice distant. She opened Irene's hand and pressed against the fabric she'd crumpled in her hand. "Stay with your nurse."

Everyone boarded the ship after Irene and her family. She enjoyed getting to be first. Prince Eric was her cousin; sometimes he'd come and see her father, his uncle. He was nice. He always remembered to bring her a toy and his dog Max loved to play hide and seek.

She sat on her father's lap, enjoying the way the ship moved up and down in the water. They set off and she slipped down to watch the waves go past the ship. She giggled as she watched the water splash and curl. After just a few minutes, the ship slowed, then stopped.

"Come back here, my lady," her nurse whispered. She came to stand in front of Nurse. Nurse's fingers on her shoulder were tight and she squirmed. Nurse let go, but Irene rubbed the spot.

Everyone stood as Prince Eric strode up the aisle. Irene was disappointed when he didn't smile at her, or even look at her. He looked funny, when she looked closer. She twisted to ask Nurse about it, but the expression on Nurse's face stopped her.

Feeling suddenly cold, Irene turned back to face the pulpit. Something was odd. The Prince stood straight and stiff; he wasn't smiling or anything. Irene thought that people were always happy when they got married.

The bride came down the aisle, smiling brightly. Irene stuck her head out to watch, but jerked her head back suddenly. She'd _kicked_ Max! Nurse pulled her back away from the aisle and this time Irene didn't struggle to see more. This couldn't be right. Her cousin Eric would never marry someone who didn't like Max.

She watched closely as Prince Eric said he'd marry this mean woman. His eyes seemed really strange. Then there was a bunch of noise from the back of the ship and the red-headed girl Prince Eric had brought all over the town the other day was standing there, all wet.

Suddenly things seemed to happen all at once and Irene never did feel like she understood what order thigns happened in. A seagull attacked the mean woman and pulled her necklace off. Someone started singing, which was odd, but then, even stranger, the red-headed girl was singing and then she started talking! The Prince had said that she couldn't talk!

The Prince rushed to the red-head, that's right - her name was Ariel - and started to kiss her, but then she curled up and ...

And here is where what Irene remembered got really strange. Irene asked her parents about it later, but they said that they didn't remember anything like this happening. Nurse left their service the next day, so Irene could never ask her what she remembered.

Irene remembered Ariel becoming half a fish, lying on the deck of the wedding ship with her human body but with a fish tail instead of legs. Then, there was a huge booming laugh from the pulpit and the mean woman, the one Prince Eric nearly married, burst out of her dress and she changed into something huge and strange with tentacles and funny colored hair...

Then there was a huge storm and everyone had to go below on the ship, so she didn't see anything else. The storm lasted most of the night, and when Irene woke up she was back at home in her bed. When she got up, one of the upstairs maids came into her room and excitedly told her that they were going to have a big wedding in the castle. Three days later, Prince Eric married Ariel, and no one ever mentioned the other wedding.

It wasn't until Irene was much older that she figured out that the mean bride had turned into an octopus woman.

Irene herself never married. She'd had nightmares for months about weddings and fish - she happily attended her brothers' weddings, and those of her other relatives, but she'd decided that she didn't want to try it herself.


End file.
